Since the widespread acceptance by consumers of blow molded PET containers for carbonated beverages, efforts have been made by the bottling industry to improve the containers. Many of such containers are composites, consisting of a blow molded bottle and a supporting base cup. Many efforts have concentrated on improving the bottle but few improvements have involved the base cup of the bottle.
Base cups have generally been made using injection molding techniques which implicitly impose some disciplines on the shape of the injection molded article. For example, projections and overhangs can not readily be formed on the sidewalls of an injection molded article. In addition, the weight of the base cup can only be reduced a certain amount because of the flow characteristics of the plastic during the injection molding steps.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a base cup container consisting of a blow molded bottle and a blow molded base cup.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus for manufacturing the base cup container.